Neymar honoured to go level with Romario on 55 Brazil goals

Neymar had the "great honour" to go level with Brazil great Romario on 55 global goals in Sunday's 3-0 win over Austria, saying it allowed him to pay tribute to the former striker.

Against Austria, he had no attempt on goal in the opening hour but went down three times following rough challenges by the home side.

Neymar's talents know no bounds in the eyes of Brazil head coach Tite after the superstar forward made a dazzling return to his starting line-up this afternoon.

In his blog on UOL Esporte, respected journalist Paulo Vinicius Coelho, known as PVC, noted how Brazil had "transformed a hard game into an easy [one]" by beating an Austria side that had won its last seven fixtures.

The Brazilians have been drawn in a group with Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia, and play the Swiss in their opener in Rostov-on-Don on Sunday.

Gabriel Jesus and Philippe Coutinho scored the other goals for the five-times champions who showed great patience in the first half as they worked to break Austria down before turning on the style after the interval. "Not only was the attack well, the group went very well". Brazil is in red-hot form after their wins over Germany and Croatia.

The most extreme examples were the Confederations Cup final against Spain in 2013 when Brazil battered their opponents with 26 fouls and the infamous World Cup quarter-final against Colombia in 2014, where they gave away 31 free kicks.

The defense is solid, the forwards are lethal when they get a sniff of goal and they have the patience to unlock the most stubborn defenses.

"The game was important to us".

Brazil also face Costa Rica and Serbia in Group E in Russian Federation as they look to hit back from their shock 7-1 semi-final defeat to Germany on home soil four years ago.

An open start saw Casemiro fire wide after eight minutes and 10 minutes later Neymar tested Heinz Lindner, shooting straight at the goalkeeper from 25 yards.

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